Patent GB-1103181-A (GB)
Title: Pressure bandage-splint
Inventor: GOTTFRIED MAX
IPC: A61F5/058
Filed: 1965-04-20
Abstract: 1,103,181. Inflatable leg splint. JOBST INSTITUTE Inc. 20 April, 1965, No. 16652/ 65. Heading A5R. In an air pressure splint intended at least partially to encase a boot-clad human leg, the perimeter of an outer flexible and non-stretchable wall is connected by seaming to an inner flexible wall to form a sealed inflatable envelope, marginal portions of which envelope are connected together by seaming so that the envelope is capable of being brought into a form comprising an annular closed envelope by marginal separable fastening means interconnectable by a self-locking slide fastener. When the splint is operatively in position, as illustrated in Figure 1, the fastening means extends from adjacent corresponding ends of the margins of the envelope towards a toereceiving opening, the envelope constituting an air chamber so disposed as to surround the instep and a major portion of the leg and forming a heal-receiving opening located opposite the toe-receiving opening. As illustrated, airinflatable splint 10 comprises outer wall sheet 11 and inner wall sheet 12 joined together at their perimetral margins 26 to form a sealed envelope which may be orally inflated by valved inflating tube members 20 and 21 each of which comprises stem 14 and mouth tube 24. Marginal portions of the envelope carry slide fastener elements 18 and 19 which together form slide fastener 22; in order to ensure snug application of the splint to a boot, for example a ski-boot 17, of any size, the closure member or tongue piece 23 of the slide fastener is slidable preferably towards the toereceiving opening 15 to effect closure of the fastening elements. As illustrated in Figure 2, the margins of the envelope extending longitudinally from the heel-receiving opening 16 are connected together preferably by a lapped seal 33, the portions of the air chamber on opposite sides of the seal being in open communication via air chamber portion 36 which forms a sub-instep support located at the longitudinally spaced centre zone 28 of the envelope. The splint may be formed by superposing similar walls of flexible sheet material in registered marginal relation to one another, sealing the walls to one another about the perimeter thereof to provide an air-tight envelope, attaching coacting slide fastener elements to longitudinally spaced zones of one of the sealed wall margins on opposite sides of a longitudinally spaced centre zone of the envelope, folding the envelope at the centre zone to form similar halves in superposed marginal register with one another, and sealing these halves to one another along margins thereof opposite the margin zones which carry the slide fastener elements. The walls preferably are formed of transparent heat-sealable sheet material, for example polyvinyl chloride, heat sealing preferably being used to connect both the sheets to one another and the halves of the envelope to one another. The halves of the envelope are sealed to one another preferably by a seam consisting of reversely overlapped two-ply edges and preferably for a length only approximately coextensive with the length of the superposed zones of the slide fastener elements so as to provide an opening at the centre zone between the sealed margins of the superposed halves of the envelope.